For last year’s Summer Comics Binge, I chose to dive into the first “Star Wars: Doctor Aphra” series after reading the debut issue of the second volume, in hopes to learn more about the character. Among the many things I learned about Aphra was that she actually first appeared in 2015’s “Star Wars: Darth Vader.” So when deciding on a series for the 2021 Summer Comics Binge, I decided to dig deeper into Aphra’s origins to learn more about her character journey – – and maybe even learn a little bit about Lord Vader along the way.
Cover by Adi GranovWritten by Kieron Gillen
Illustrated by Salvador Larocca
Colored by Edgar Delgado
Lettered by VC’s Joe CaramangaCollects Darth Vader #1-6.
The original Dark Lord of the Sith stars in his first ongoing series! Ever since Darth Vader’s first on-screen appearance, he has become one of pop-culture’s most popular villains. Now, follow Vader straight from the ending of A NEW HOPE (and the pages of the new STAR WARS comic book) into his own solo adventures — showing the Empire’s war with the Rebel Alliance from the other side! But when a Dark Lord needs help, who can he turn to? As Vader pursues a very personal vengeance against the Rebels and investigates the Emperor’s secret machinations, he clashes with weapons scavenger Aphra and deadly Battle Droids, and returns to Geonosis to build an army. But some very powerful people don’t want him to learn the truths he seeks! Guest-starring Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett and more!
Everyone knows what happened at the end of A New Hope: the Battle of Yavin, the destruction of the Death Star, the Empire in retreat. And yet, by the start of The Empire Strikes Back, the Rebel Alliance is back on the run and in more danger than before. What led to that reversal of fortune in the three years between both films?
That’s the question “Star Wars: Darth Vader” seeks to answer, how we got from that Point A to Point B.
We open the series right after the events of A New Hope, with Lord Vader no longer in the good graces of Palpatine and the rest of the Empire, thanks to the events of Yavin. He knows he can right the situation (and offers his own justification for his actions, but Palpatine knows better, preferring to have Vader under his command and control than acting independently. Of course, we know that’s not going to last too long, and we’re right – – behind the scenes, he’s preferring to be the one who wields the weapon, not being wielded as Palpatine would prefer. Who’s he after? The person who destroyed the Death Star. The course of revenge though, never runs smooth – – he’s also discovered that there are Empire moles leaking his movements, sabotaging his Imperial redemption tour. Someone’s going to have to build some new alliances in order to achieve his ends.
How ironic that the man who fought tooth and nail to bring down his opposition now finds himself with something in common with those rebels: animosity for the Empire. But this is not going to be a “the enemy of my enemy is also my friend” sort of situation. Vader still gonna Vader and lean hard into that dark side when building his dream team. First there’s Black Krrsantan, a lethal fighting machine thanks to (as we learned last year in the Summer Comics Binge) his gladiator training. And then there’s Doctor Aphra, who we meet in issue #3, as she’s trying to resurrect Triple Zero into one of the protocol droids. Aphra’s no fan of the rebels either, so she gratefully accepts Darth Vader’s invitation to join his team. We know by the start of “Star Wars: Doctor Aphra” she comes to fear Vader, so seeing the fan worship she has for her new boss is certainly something different. What will happen to have her loyalties turn?
There’s a lot going for Kieron Gillen as writer for this series. He has a keen sense of the facets of good and evil thanks to his work on “The Wicked + The Divine” (which debuted the year prior), particular the darker side of human nature. Coupled with a special attachment to The Empire Strikes Back (it was the first film he saw in the cinemas), it was a match made in heaven (or hell), as he details in this 2014 SDCC interview:
Continued belowPutting aside Darth Vader being one of the greatest villains of all time, the Star Wars mythos, and the very interesting time period when the story is set I’ve wanted to write a villain book forever. I’ve thrown the idea around a few times and if anyone has read my stories they know I tend to spend a lot of time with my villains.
So all of those things came together and it was like, “Yes! This is great! I get to do the story of Darth Vader from the end of the first “Star Wars” film to the start of ” The Empire Strikes Back!” It’s a big story too. It’s not just that I want to write Darth Vader. It’s that I get to write this story of Darth Vader and it’s all in canon. As far as Lucasfilm is concerned, this is what happened.
Does he make Vader a sympathetic character that will change your tune about the end of A New Hope? Nope. What he does is reveal the machinations behind the man. How does one come back to power when the powerful strip your tools away? How do you go from being the wielded to do the wielding? Within the foundations of these deeper explorations is also intelligent banter and humor, particularly in Aphra and Vader’s first meeting, and the introduction of Triple-Zero, a twisted version of C-3PO with a few extra skills.

Naturally, reading this with this advance knowledge of Aphra and her characterization is much different than if I hadn’t read her solo series last year. I’m looking for things that I expect to see, constantly wondering how we will get from this point to the point B that sets up an Aphra on the run. I have to be careful not to fall too far into this trap because that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy that ruins the joy of discovery.
Artist Salvador Larocca comes to “Darth Vader” from the main “Star Wars” series, so he has a familiarity with how to create the world. His previous career as a cartographer and work in European comics (though it was at Marvel’s UK imprint) bring a hyper-realist sensibility to the page. It does leave some action scenes static in the first issue, but as the action picks up in issue #2, Larocca finds his groove. While there’s been criticism of that style from his work in the main “Star Wars” series, particularly when it comes to facial features, that’s thus far a non-issue here, since the most of the characters are either new to Star Wars (Doctor Aphra, Black Krrsantan, Triple Zero), or in helmets (Boba Fett, Lord Vader). It’s not something I noticed with the cameos of human faces in these three issues.
It’s also fun watching Larocca play with panels and space to set tension, particularly in issue #3. With just the right combination of close ups and breaking the panel borders at the right times and places, we get a very intimate introduction to Aphra and her world, giving the script the responsibility it should have at this point: narrative momentum. It’s the execution of that adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Gillen brought over Larocca and cover artist Adi Granov to the series from their work together on “Iron Man” for these reasons: building a cinematic world that also remains steeped in technology, just the kind of story Star Wars can be:
They both come from a photo realist tradition, but at the same time they’re entirely capable of drawing convincing machines. Those are useful talents when you’re doing a book that is A) cinematic and B) technical. (Source.)
With the right people and the right skills on his team, Vader has high hopes on exacting his revenge on both the Empire and the Rebellion. And with this creative team in place, so do we.
Next week we’ll look at the back half of ‘Vader’ with issues #4-6, completing the series’s first trade collection.
If you want to read along with me this summer, you can pick up the single issues or trades of “Star Wars: Darth Vader” at your local comic shop (be sure to wear your mask and social distance while you’re there!), or digitally on Marvel Unlimited or Comixology Unlimited. All single issues and trades of the series are available on Marvel Unlimited and Comixology Unlimited. If you’re a trade reader, don’t forget to check your local library’s print and digital catalogues for the trade paperbacks.